TEXT-V : Document on/of The Workers' and Peasants' Parties

1

The Action Programme of The Labour And Kisan Party of India

Labour

(2) Right to form union.

(3) Recognition of right to strike as a lawful weapon in the hands of labour for their self-protection.

(4) Formation of arbitration courts to deal with labour disputes composed of labour-union representatives, capitalists and state officials or neutrals in equal number.

(5) Improved housing condition.

(6) Minimum wages guaranteeing the value of 350 lb. of rice or wheat according to the custom of the provinces per month and 10 pairs of dhotis per year.

(7) State insurance against accident, old age, ill health and unemployment.

(8) Provident fund for workers.

(9) Privilege and casual leave with full pay similar to that of state officials.

(10) Reduced tramway and railway fare to labour and poor kisans.

(11) Eight hours law, 6 hours for miners and nursing women and 4 hours for children.

(12) Free medical aid.

(13) Four months’ delivery leave with full pay.

(14) Maternity protection.

(15) Abolition of labour recruitment by sardars under whom they work and who take a percentage of their earnings and whose interest coincides with that of capitalists.

(16) Adoption of labour recruitment free or through labour union.

Peasant

(2) Twenty per cent reduction on all economic rent in ryotwari settlement.

(3) Equal standard of rent for small holders in zamindari area as in ryotwari.

(4) Eventual abolition of permanent settlement.

(5) Extraction by zamindars, their servants or state officials as extras, be it in cash, kind or labour, should be made punishable by law.

(6) Protection against oppression of zamindars.

(7) Abolition of “salami”, that is a large sum of cash payment extracted by the zamindars (also jenmies) while transferring the land from one to other tenants.

(8) Free irrigation.

(9) Abolition of dowry etc.

Common

(2) Easy access for the producing masses in state institutions, that is, lowering the standard of qualifications for candidature in local self-government and provincial of central government institutions. The position as official in trade unions or labour party should be considered qualification enough to sit on those bodies representing labour and kisans.

(3) Free and compulsory education till 16th year.

(4) Abolition of taxes like salt tax, chaukidari tax, road cess etc.

(5) Sharing the industrial profit by labour together with the capitalists.

(6) Establishment of cooperative credit, consumers’ and marketing societies to help the needy labour and kisans by loans and supply of their material needs at cheaper rate and to gather, preserve and sell their produce in proper time and market to fetch highest price for the small producers’ benefit.

(7) Differential railway tariff to such cooperatives.

(8) Protection of untouchables by legislation giving them equal political and religious rights.

(9) Universal suffrage in Congress election.

2

A New Party

(From Our Own Correspondent)

Bombay, April 11th. A new party has been formed under the leadership of M Singaravelu of Madras known as “The Labour and Kisan Party of Hindustan”. The object is two fold : (1) To secure economic relief to the masses; (2) to win labour swaraj. The method is non-violent non-cooperation, including civil resistance, defiance of law courts, etc. The tactics are all available tactics which will secure more food for the masses. They include council-entry, whether national, provincial or local, as an organised party to form a government opposition; non-cooperation and passive resistance wherever possible, strikes and other forms of mass action. All the existing political institutions in the country will be made use of which will in any way further the party ends. Membership is strictly limited to workers by hand or brain, excluding the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie include the big landowners, mill or factory proprietors, lawyers, medical men and all those who make use of labour to amass fortune. This is a rough classification, but all those who accept on principle the relinquishment of large private properties will be admitted to membership on a year’s probation. Membership will be by party card. The manifesto will be issued to the country in a few days.

Source: Vanguard, 1 June 1928

3

The Workers’ And Peasants’ Party

Whereas the government of India, representing the interest of imperialism, exist to maintain the exploitation and political subjection of all classes of India, 95 per cent of whom are peasants, workers and middle classes of India, and has shown itself to be in opposition to the promotion of their interests; and Whereas the National Congress and the Parties within it, as well as, the liberals, independents, and other non-congress parties, while at times advocating the improvement of the conditions of the masses, have shown in practice a complete lack of interest in the political, economic and social needs of the peasantry and working class, and by their actions have proved themselves to be parties promoting the interests of imperial and Indian capitalism; and

Whereas the peasantry, constituting the bulk of the population, suffer exploitation in three main directions, by excessive taxation, by high rents, and by the exactions of usurious moneylenders, and in consequence of the illiteracy, and the dual character of their oppression, are incapable of taking the steps towards their emancipation from these evils; and

Whereas the industrial working class, subjected to intense exploitation, in the absence of adequate protective legislation, and the lack of means to enforce that which exists, has failed to organize effectively its own struggle, against these conditions, and has allowed its trade-union movement to fall largely under the leadership of middle class elements which exploit it for their own communal, political or personal ends; and

Whereas the overwhelming majority of the population, consisting of classes whose interests, though not identical, are not fundamentally opposed, is economically exploited and denied educational and social advancement both by the Indian capitalists and foreign government and held in political subjection by the said government with indirect and unconscious help of Indian capitalist class; and

Whereas the exploitation and subjection of the workers and peasants cannot finally cease until economic and political power have been taken from the present rulers and transferred to the workers and peasants.

It is hereby resolved that:

(2) Since an essential condition for the fulfillment of this programme is the attainment of complete national independence, the party will cooperate for that end with other organisations which profess to desire it and are willing to struggle for its realisation.

(3) It shall therefore be the ultimate object of the party to obtain swaraj wherein the means of production, distribution and exchange are publicly owned and socially controlled.

Party’s demands

(a) Immediate Political Demands

(1) Universal adult suffrage and responsible government.

(2) Abolition of communalism.

(3) Freedom of speech, press and the right of association.

(4) Removal of all restriction on trade unions.

(b) Economic Demands

(1) The abolition of indirect taxation and the introduction of graded income-tax on all income exceeding Rs 250 per mensem.

(2) Nationalisation of land wherein all cultivable land will be leased by government direct to the cultivator.

(3) Nationalisation of means of production, distribution and exchange.

(4) Rent on landholdings not to be excessive.

(5) Establishment by the government of state-aided cooperative banks, controlled by local organisation for the provision of credit to peasants at interest not exceeding 7 per cent.

(6) Establishment by law of the 8-hour day and 6-day week for industrial workers.

(7) Establishment by law of minimum living wage.

(8) Establishment of schemes of insurance for sickness, unemployment, old-age pension and maternity benefits.

(9) Improvement of laws regarding workmen’s compensation and employer’s liability.

(10) Legal enactments providing for installation of modern safety appliances in factories, mines etc.

(11) Weekly payment of wages.

(c) Social Demands

(1) Complete elimination of illiteracy and the provision of adequate facilities for free and compulsory, liberal and vocational education for all up to the age of 18.

(2) Establishment of hospitals, health centres, free medical treatment and maternity benefits.

(3) Training and education in the principles of hygiene and sanitation.

(4) Provision of adequate housing for workers and peasantry at rents within their means.

(5) Legal prohibition of all employment of women in dangerous occupation.

(6) Legal prevention of employment below the age of 18.

Office-bearers

President: Dhundiraj Thengdi; Secretary: SS Mirajkar; Executive Committee : SH Jhabvala, SV Ghate, Lalji Pende (Congress), KN Joglekar (trade union), RS Nimbkar (education), JB Patel (peasants).

Source: Meerut Record, p 1017

4

WPP Programme For AICC

The present congress activity and programme are completely divorced from the everyday life of the masses, and in consequence the bulk of the population, the disenfranchised 98 per cent, have lost all interest in and sympathy for the congress, which has become a feeble body. The present leadership of the congress has tied itself and the congress machinery to a programme of work which is of benefit only to an insignificant section of the people, the big capitalists and their allies, the intellectual and professional upper classes. As a consequence, on the one hand, congress circles are divided by personal ends, and on the other, the masses are allowed and even encouraged to express their indignation against their hard lot in the form of communal fights.

In the interest of the vast majority of the people it is urgently necessary to free the congress from the narrow shackles of class interests, and to yoke it to the task of attaining national freedom from the imperialist bondage, as a step towards complete emancipation of the masses from exploitation and oppression.

This meeting of the All Indian Congress committee therefore resolves that:

(2) It reiterates its faith in civil disobedience, i.e. direct action, as the only effective weapon that will ultimately free the people of India from their subject position but realises that a great general awakening will have to be brought about before this weapon of direct action can be effectively used.

All efforts must be directed to the attainment with the least possible delay of the general awakening, and for this purpose the congress adopts the following programme :

(i) 70 per cent of the population which is engaged in agriculture is to be organised into peasants’ societies, by district, taluka and village, on the lines of village, panchayats, based on universal suffrage, aiming to secure control of the economic life of the rural areas.

(ii) Agricultural cooperative banks to be established by the state for the provision of cheap credit for the peasants, whereby they will be enabled to free themselves from the grip of the saukars, and to purchase modern machinery and other equipment,

(iii) Limitation by law of the rate of interest on loans to 7 per cent per annum.

(iv) Limitation of rent to 10 per cent of the total produce, to be paid direct to the state.

(v) Bringing into cultivation by state aid of cultivable land at present unused.

(vi) The industrial working class to be organised into trade unions in order to increase their control over the working conditions. In order to guarantee a human existence, the following legal provisions to be made; (a) eight-hour duty, (b) a minimum living wage, (c) abolition of child labour under the age of 18, (d) a scheme of old-age, health and unemployment insurance for industrial and clerical workers, similar provision being made for agricultural labourers through village organisations, (e) employers’ liability and workmen’s compensation acts, (f) full freedom for trade union activity, (g) to make all necessary provisions for adequate housing.

(vii) Free and compulsory education both for boys and girls will be enforced in the primary grades and full facilities will be created for the secondary grades. Provision will also be made to give free technical and vocational training. …

(viii) Woman shall enjoy full social, economic and political life on equal status with man.

(ix) All indirect taxation will be abolished so also will feudal rights and dues from the cultivator. Land rent will be fixed to a minimum.

(x) A progressive income tax shall be imposed upon all incomes exceeding Rs 250 per mensem.

(xi) Full freedom of speech, press, and association will be ensured for all.

(xii) Full freedom of religion and faith will be established for all and it shall be absolutely an individual concern,

(xiii) While distinctly reiterating the opinion that the reforms and the political machinery created there under are unsatisfactory and inadequate, this congress holds that whatever advantage could be secured from existing political machinery must be utilised in the interest of the masses.

(xiv) … In the elementary and initial stages of the above work all legal protection and conditions of direct help will have to be created under the existing political machinery and with this definite purpose alone the councils and all other political bodies will be worked and utilised by all congressmen whenever and wherever possible.

(xv) … While thus utilising the existing machinery for the furtherance of the cause of the control of the masses over the same, congressmen will continue the policy of continuous, consistant and uniform obstruction to all governemnt measures wherby the bureaucracy intends to or is likely to strengthen its position, …

Source: Meerut Record, p 843

5

Extracts from President’s Speech at the

First All India Workers And Peasants Party Conference

Our Enemies : … They dub us as bolsheviks and comunists and the like, but we must not lose heart. Is it not a matter of pride to be called a bolshevik ? Because bolshevik is one who replaces the present rotten order of things by a new and just system, in which the wealth is distributed justly, where there are no poor and no rich classes, where there is no unemployment, in which there is an end of the ruler and the ruled, oppressor and the oppressed, employer and the employee, landlord and peasant, where every one is prosperous and gets all he needs, where all live a happy and prosperous life.

To speak my mind freely I am working to bring about such an order of things and because the bolsheviks of Russia have shown us the way in this respect — we are thankful to them. If our enemies call us bolsheviks, we accept the epithet, because we know that bolshevism stands for liberty, equality and fraternity.

Need of Central Organisation : So far our parties have been working in their respective provinces and I am glad to see that in almost all cases our point of view has been the same. In our respective provinces we have gained power that is to count with. But in this working province-wise not only is there a danger of differences rising among us but also there is disadvantage of our power being divided. By uniting all parties into one central body we shall acquire a power that will carry weight. This central body has long been overdue, …

I make bold to suggest that in order to place our view point before the country and to educate our members we should start a weekly organ, for this will keep us in touch with the work going on in different provinces. Besides many persons who misunderstand us will come to know our ideas and aims and have sympathy for us.

Tasks of the Party : … a few points need special emphasis:

First, that whatever programme may be, it should be based on class struggle. We should work for 100 per cent organisation, we must see that all our members become class conscious. … We must again face the bourgeois reformist leaders who have betrayed many strikes and agrarian movements. We should encourage hartals and strikes.

Secondly, our watchword should be complete independence … Besides this we should carry on an active propaganda to call a constituent assembly where representatives will be sent by universal adult suffrage. This assembly will frame a programme for the masses, because All-Parties Conference has failed to safeguard the interest of all and has proved to be an agent of the capitalists.

Thirdly, we should include in our programme the abolition of landlordism and the Indian states. And we should propagate for distributing the wealth justly, because this just demand appeals strongly to the masses and will help us in organising them soon.

Fourthly, we should look sharp to secure International affiliations, with all those parties who are bent upon destroying imperialism.

Fifthly, we should try our level best to disseminate our ideas among the youngmen, …

Sixthly, we should carry on an active propaganda against the coming war and should preach among the masses not to supply recruits and other assistance to the government if war come about.

Last, but not the least, I remind you once again to look to your organisation and solidarity of rank and file.

6

Political Resolution

The political situation in the past year, while conforming generally to the lines described a year ago, has undergone important developments. The following are its main features:

(1) Continuance of the firm policy of imperialism towards the bourgeois nationalist movement, and increasingly reactionary attitude towards the masses.

(2) Consequent retreat of almost all parties of the bourgeoisie, including the Congress, in support of a timid liberal programme of constitutional demands, and communal reconciliation.

(3) Considerable increase in the strength and militancy of the mass movement, workers, peasants and petty bourgeoisie.

(4) An effort on the part of the wing of the bourgeoisie to threaten imperialism with the mass movement and at the same time to regain the control over the petty bourgeoisie and the masses which they are losing …

7

Constitution Of The All-India Workers And Peasants Party[1]

1. Name

The name of the party shall be “The All-India Workers and Peasants Party.

2. Object

The object of the party is the attainment of complete independence from imperialism in general and British imperialism in particular and thorough democratisation of India based on economic, social and political emancipation of the masses.

3. Means

The means shall be the party programme adopted from year to year at the annual session of the party or at any extraordinary congress called for the same purpose.

4. Extent

The jurisdiction of the party shall extend over the territories including Indian states, known as India proper, adjoining territories-under the influence of British imperialism.

5. Membership

(A) The membership or the party shall be of two kinds :

1. Individual.

2. Affiliated body.

1. Slightly abridged. Emphases added by us to rules regarding affiliated organisation. —Ed

(D) The national executive committee of the party shall have power to affiliate with it any workers or peasants union which is in sympathy with the object and programme of the party. The party shall undertake the work of giving the members of affiliated unions class-conscious education in trade-unionism and politics, and shall assist the work of the unions by advice and propaganda.

(E) Members will have to pay party dues regularly and perform the organised work of the party assigned to them.

6. Subscription

(b) Affiliated organisations : The affiliated organisations shall pay subscription at the rate of Rs 3 per thousand or part there of per annum.

7. Management

The work of the party shall be conducted as follows:

(b) The annual congress of the party shall be held with all individual members and representatives of affiliated organisations on the basis of one per thousand or part there of.

(c) Special congress: In case of emergency the national executive committee shall have power to summon a special Congress.

(d) National executive committee : There shall be an executive committee of the party elected every year at the annual congress from amongst the members (individual and affiliated). …

11. Discipline

It is essential for party work that individuals[2] should observe the requirements of a party discipline. Decisions once taken by the appropriate organ of the party must be obeyed.

Any member found acting against the interests of the party or violating its decisions can be expelled by the provincial executive committees. Such members shall have the right of appeal to the central executive committee.

Note :

2. It may be noted that the “Discipline” section do not cover the affiliated bodies. -Ed

12. Organisation

Provincial committee should be elected under the direction of the national executive committee of the party.

Branches should be set up in towns, talukas and villages under the direction of provincial committees.

Groups set up in factories, railways, mines, etc. should work on factory committees.

Fraction or groups should be set up in trade-union branches management committees, executive committees etc.; and also in provincial congress committees. This applies to the Trade Union Congress and All-India Congress Committee.

A definite youth organisation should be brought into being to work in the existing youth movements,trade unions and congress committees etc.

A women section must be set up to work among women.

Operation of organisation

Study circles must be started forthwith in order that members may understand and correctly interpret party policy, and most important the application.

It is essential that all committees, branches and fractions should meet regularly, and keep up to date with current events. Therefore provincial executive committees must meet at least once per month. Branches and fractions or groups every week.

The entire branch membership shall be grouped in accordance with their special party work e.g. in trade union group, congress group, peasants group etc. Each member must belong to at least one group …

Fractions or working groups must elect a group leader, who shall be responsible to the provincial or branch committee. These fractions must carry out decisions of an higher body. These decisions will be conveyed to the group by the group leader. After discussion and decision by the group or fraction on a resolution or nominations for official position etc.; the decision of the group must be binding on the whole of the group. The work of the party groups within the trade unions and congress committees shall be guided by the programme and policy of the party. …

Branch committees : The branch committee shall coordinate the entire work of the town or village, and be responsible to the provincial committee. …

The branch committee must get reports or work from group leaders.

Provincial committees : These committees when elected shall coordinate the party activity in the province. They will receive instructions and policy on current affairs from the national executive committee. …

The provincial committee shall have power to deal with immediate problems, issue urgent manifestos and leads in the name of the provincial committee, Workers and Peasants Party, and shall be responsible/or the same to the national executive committee. …

The Provincial Committees : This committee shall be elected by an annual meeting of representatives, elected by party branches and groups and affiliated organisations throughout the province.

Source : Meerut Record, p 549

8

To The All-Indian Conference of Workers And Peasants Parties

(Abridged)

The Communist International supporting everywhere the revolutionary movement of the toilers and the oppressed, through your organisation, albeit not part of our international body, send its greetings to the workers and peasants of India now waging a heroic struggle against imperialist oppression and feudal reaction upon one of the most important sections of the world front. The victorious progress of this struggles demands in our opinion above all, the creation of an independent class party of the proletariat, the uniting and raising of the isolated actions of the peasants to the highest political level, and the formations of a real revolutionary bloc of workers and peasants, under the leadership of the proletariat not in the form of a united workers and peasants party, but on the basis of cooperation in deeds between the mass organisations of the proletariat on the one hand, and peasant leagues and committees on the other, for the overthrow of the imperialists and the destruction of the political and economic basis of colonial exploitation and slavery. The growing influence of the workers and peasants parties, and particularly the attendance of thousands of peasants’ at your provincial conferences, proves that the understanding of the necessity for this militant bloc is penetrating among ever larger masses of toilers.

Your conference is taking place at a moment which may become the turning point in the history of the national revolution. The furious preparations of the British bourgeoisie for a new imperialistic slaughter, and the intensification of all forms of colonial plunder and terror, place the peoples of India in a position from which there is no other way out, but open and determined fight for the overthrow of the alien yoke. The revolutionary crisis in the country is maturing. In the strike movements various detachment of the working class (particularly the textile workers of Bombay) begin to come out as an independent force, conscious of the irreconcilability of its interests with imperialism and the chaffering bourgeoisie, and of its historic role as the champion of the national revolution. More painfully, and slowly, but with equal certainty, the oppressed, ruined and disunited peasantry is entering the path of organised struggle. Growing unemployment, ruin and hopelessness stir also the town petty bourgeoisie to revolutionary activity. The pent-up discontent of the masses, the despair, and the sub-line hatred for the oppression, is already breaking forth to transform these isolated and defensive actions, attempt an aggressive fight against British imperialism and its native allies, that is the fundamental task before your conference.

The main obstacle to the victorious organised struggle against British imperialism and its feudal allies in the period of increasing terrorism and bloody repression is the influence of opportunist bourgeois nationalism. Each day brings and will bring fresh proof of the treachery of the bourgeoisie. …
Lately this treachery has assumed the character of the most cynical toying with the slogan of “independence” which the swarajists now throw out to deceive the masses, now tucked away in their pocket (the Motilal Nehru report), in order to penetrate into the Simon commission through the back stairs, and now raise again in a distorted shape, simultaneously with the “dominion status” slogan. … The struggle against this fraud compels you not only to determined and relentless exposure of the bourgeois treachery, but also through systematic every day activity to bring home this exposure, to the masses of the workers and peasants. …

The greatest danger to the organisation of the masses, to the creation of a revolutionary bloc of the proletariat and the peasantry and to the proletarian leadership in this bloc, consists not only in bourgeois nationalism as such, but comes from the organisations and groups of “prominent” petty-bourgeois intellectuals actually influenced by the form of the “Independence League”. The wavering and oscillating petty-bourgeois intellectuals of India are either tied up with the system of landlordism and usury and preached the return to obsolete forms of pre-capitalist exploitation or they reflect the interests of capitalist exploitation being the agents of the bourgeoisie within the national movement. In either case they deny the importance of the class struggle, and whilst claiming to be “at the head” of the workers and peasants movement, they are .fit in reality only to behead it. The better elements alone of the petty-bourgeoisie intellectuals with a revolutionary frame of mind may rise to the proletarian class viewpoint, and become a positive factor in the national revolutionary struggle.

The “Independence League” at least in its present shape in fact assists official swarajism in its nefarious play with the slogans of “Independence” and “dominion status”. Duly appreciating the very fact of the organisation of this League as proof that at the present time one cannot approach the masses without demanding independence and the overthrow of imperialism, your conference at the same time cannot fail to dissociate itself from the confusion and twaddle which characterises the advertised League platform with its lavish promises.

… The more determined and outspoken your criticism,the sooner the League will either expose itself as the left-wing of bourgeois nationalism, or having shaken off the politicians at the head, will join, for a certain period and within certain limits, the national-revolutionary camp (retaining, however, even in this case their incorrigible half-heartedness, chronic wavering, and inevitable confusion in the whole of their politics and tactics). …

The organisation of the workers and peasants bloc is based upon the common interest of the workers, peasants and the town poor, in the fight against imperialism and feudal reaction. Nevertheless, it does not eliminate the class deferences, and therefore, it does not imply by any means the fusion of the workers and peasants into the party. In the Great October revolution the proletariat gained the following of the peasantry of all the nations which inhabited the former tzarist Russia just because it was organised into the independent Bolshevik Party, into a party armed with the Marxist-Leninist theory, irreconcilable to petty-bourgeois wavering, disciplined, self-sacrificing, capable of screening itself underground from the blows of the tzarist terror, at the same time never ceasing to take advantage of all the legal possibilities. The Indian proletariat, we feel sure, will follow this path.

The Indian proletariat will be the champion of the national- revolutionary fight and lead to victory of the peasantry, the town poor, and all the toilers, if it organises and consolidates the vanguard the Communist Party, which will educate the working masses in the spirit of a clear and unmistakable class policy in the realisation of the need for tremendous sacrifices in order to overthrow imperialism and bourgeoisie. The existing (only on paper) Communist Party of India, since it does not show any signs of revolutionary life, has no grounds to consider and even to call itself communist, although there are individual communists among its members. … the task of building a genuine Communist Party will be considerably facilitated if at the same time broad revolutionary organisations of the workers are formed with the active participation of communists, or a broad left wing created in the trade-union movement upon the platform of consistent class struggle.

We expect that your conference will raise the question of participating in the building of such broad revolutionary mass organisation of the workers. These can be built only in the irreconcilable everyday struggle against imperialism and bourgeoisie, as well as against reformism and the petty-bourgeois groups under the cloak of socialism. The heroic steadfastness of the Indian proletariat in the strikes, the rapidity with which it gathers its forces although as yet only locally, the persistent endeavours to promote strike leaders from its own ranks — leaves no room, no doubt that the elements for revolutionary mass organisations of the workers have matured.

We are convinced that your conference will discuss, and severely condemn the grave opportunistic blunders committed by the representative of the workers and peasants parties in the leadership of the strike movement, particularly in connection with the heroic struggle of the textile workers of Bombay. The source of these mistakes is the insufficiently clear stand against the reformist blacklegs (Joshi) the relentless exposure of whom is an indispensable condition for every victorious strike (and for strengthening the organisation of the proletariat in the course of its development). Having yielded to the demand of the trade-union bureaucrats at the commencement of the strike to refrain from exposing to the working masses the reformist treachery, the members of the workers and peasants parties had thus disarmed themselves also for the further struggle. Surrender to the reformists led inevitably to surrender to the employers, to the signing of the demands which Were dictated by the chairman of the Arbitration commission, the flunkey of the Anglo-Indian bourgeoisie, a surrender all the more inadmissible since, as partial strikes which subsequently broke out proved the workers refused to give up the fight in spite of all their hardships. Only by learning from the severe lessons of the past struggle the working class will promote from its midst a consistent class leadership for the imminent, even more decisive strikes of the textile workers, railwaymen, miners and metal workers. With the growing intensity, of the revolutionary activity of the proletariat on one hand and the bloody onslaught of imperialism against the workers’ organisation on the other (the Trade Disputes bill), the preparation and organisation of the general strike becomes the most urgent task of the current struggle. The Indian workers who performed wonders of endurance during the defensive fights in the fights of 1928, will show similar wonders of valour in the forthcoming aggressive fights.

In the work among the peasants the task is to pass from general slogans and to draw in the peasants to the real revolutionary struggle in the defence of the everyday interests of the masses. …

In view of the tremendous variety of forms of land tenure in India, and the multitude of forms of pre-capitalist and semi-feudal bondage, the best way to embrace the peasant-movement in the various districts and localities is to organise from below peasant leagues led wherever possible by agricultural labourers and poor peasantry proved in the fight. It is necessary, not only in words, but in deeds, to endeavour to raise the isolated actions of the peasants to the level of an agrarian revolution. Under the slogans of abolition of every form and vestige of feudalism and semi-feudalism, of confiscation of the land of zamindars, usurers, priests and its transfer to the toiling peasantry while accuring in the first place the interest of the poor peasants, the agrarian revolution has been and remains the pivot of the national-revolutionary struggle in India.

In purging the leading bodies of your organisations from suspicious and unreliable elements, you will, of course, above all, be guided by the criterion of loyalty and devotion to the cause of the workers and peasants, remembering that the petty- bourgeoisie, not to speak of the bourgeois intellectuals, are closely tied up with the system of big landownership so that they must by all means combat the developing agrarian revolution.

Concerning organisational forms, your conference will have to discuss the question of separating the workers’ organisations from the peasants’ organisations, so that the former be ensured a clear-cut and consistent class development, and the latter the full embracing qf the struggling peasantry. Provincial workers and peasants parties, after an appropriate distribution of their branches and members upon this class basis, are bound to develop in the future in revolutionary mass organisations of the workers on the one hand, into peasants leagues, and committees on the other, which in turn will strive to gain the leadership inside existing peasant bodies or will build new peasants organisations. The periodical conferences and meetings of these mass organisations, called from time to time should constitute one of the forms expressing the militant bloc of the worker and peasant masses. If your conference accepts this point of view, it will put before itself the question of forming a committee for the coordination of the activities of the local workers and peasants organisations, having in mind chiefly their independent revolutionary development upon the class basis …

Down With British Imperialism !

Long Live The Revolutionary Fight of The Workers And Peasants of India!

Long Live The Revolutionary Rising of The Colonies !

Long Live Emancipated Soviet India !

Executive Committee of the Communist International

9

Some Observations on WPP

(Also see documents of sixth Congress of CI)

A

By MN Roy

(i)

The WPP is not and should not be merely a legal cover for the Communist Party … We propose the formation of WPP as a much broader organisation.

It should be the rallying ground of all the exploited social elements (proletariat, peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie), which must unite themselves in a revolutionary struggle against foreign imperialism and native reaction.

(Cited by Aditya Mukherjee in “The WPPs, 1926-30 :
An Aspect of Communism in India” included in Indian Left — Critical Appraisals Ed. By Bipan Chandra (Vikas, 1983) pp 6-7)

(ii)

… 20. The National Revolutionary Party will not be a party only of the workers and peasants. The petty bourgeois masses (as distinct from the consciously reactionary intelligentsia) must participate in the struggle for national freedom. The proletariat must help them to overcome their reactionary tendencies and push them on the road to national revolution. In spite of their political radicalism, the petty bourgeois masses will not enter in the party of the working class. Nor is it desirable that the working class Party should be flooded by the petty bourgeois elements (excluding the peasantry). The National Revolutionary party should be the rallying ground for all the classes that still carry on and must carry on the struggle for the complete overthrow of imperialism and the establishment of revolutionary democratic power. These are, primarily, the proletariat, peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie.

21. The workers and peasants parties (which have now been federated into a national organisation) are in reality more petty bourgeois than working class parties. In Bengal, for example, a number of small landlords are to be found among the leaders of the party. The individual members (excepting the communists’ trade unions and peasant unions can enter the party as collective members) are mostly petty bourgeois intellectuals. Nevertheless, the leadership of the workers and peasants parties is controlled by the communists.

This state of affairs stamps the party with a communist colour and the petty bourgeois masses stay away from it. If the Workers and Peasants Party is meant to be the Communist Party in disguised form, then its class character must be clearer — small landlords must be expelled from its leadership; but if it is to become the national revolutionary mass party, it should abandon its working class appearance and it should not be so much identified openly with the Communist Party. Its very name is an obstacle to its development in that direction.

The Workers and Peasants Party cannot be the substitute for the Communist Party. As the driving force of the national revolution the proletariat must have its own party; but still there is ample room for a revolutionary nationalist party. The proletariat must enter it and actively participate in its leadership. In the present Indian conditions the proletariat, operating through the Communist Party, must take the initiative to hasten the rise of a national revolutionary mass party.

(From DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE INDIAN QUESTION

prepared by Roy for the Sixth Congress of CI.

This draft was not placed before the congress, not published by the CI.

For full text, see G Adhikari, Vol. IIIc, pp 572 – 606)

B

By R Page Arnot

This is a two-class party, a party of a nature which is bound to represent one and not both: in a non-revolutionary moment certainly, and may be also in a revolutionary moment, it will tend to fall into the hands of the petty-bourgeois politicians who have set themselves up as peasant leaders. A party serves the interests of a class, and of old it has been said, “No party can serve two masters.” As a form of organisation it was expressly condemned in the Colonial Theses of the Sixth Congress of the Communist International as one which Communists should not attempt to build. But this Workers’ and Peasants’ Congress, the speeches at it, and its decisions, its resolutions, all give an unmistakable feeling of a real conscious mass movement for the first time in India, a real proletarian awakening. True, it is still only a handful of people. But in the tones of the Congress speeches there can be heard overtones, the rolling of the thunder, the noise of a great mass in motion.

… in the growth of the leadership of the proletariat the emergence of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party represents a very important stage. It marks the stage when some sort of leadership is being sought by the worker, away and apart from the bourgeoisie. …

What are the main errors? First there is the theoretically wrong form of organisation, and as we will find, this theoretical weakness comes out in practice also. Secondly, it is quite clear that our Communist comrades, who are in this organisation, are in this movement as a faction, leading it, regard it as the Communist Party in an Indian shape, and do not see the need for the creation of a separate Communist Party. This is an impossible position. Then there is a wrong attitude to the peasantry in this Congress, when they say that peasant proprietorship is the ultimate aim. As a transitional aim it would pass, but then only if the ultimate aim were also put in. Again, they treat the peasantry as completely undifferentiated. It is clear that once the whole of the Communist programme is omitted, once attention is fixed on national independence, even with all that that entails in the way of economic emancipation, such an organisation can seriously hinder the growth of the Communist Party.

[From How Britain Rules India by R Page Arnot published by CPGB, (London in 1929)]

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